A great rock ‘n’ roll photograph can capture the true essence of a performer. Whether it’s a quick moving Mick Jagger, Jimi Hendrix playing guitar for Wilson Pickett before he started his own band, rocking out with The Ramones or downtime with Bob Dylan, rock photographers develop an intimacy with their subject often exposing the true nature of the star. They capture moments in a rocker stars lifetime, which become iconic images celebrated for ages. We recognize the photos, but don’t often know the person behind the lenses and seldom do such great shots get the display they deserve.

Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present, at the Brooklyn Museum, is the first major museum exhibition on rock and roll to put photographers in the foreground, acknowledging their creative and collaborative role in the history of rock music. An introduction to the exhibit’s book, written by curator Gail Buckland, writes perceptively about how rock ’n’ roll images, many taken by photographers we’ve never heard of, “changed the world and how we see and experience it.”

Bob Dylan

Who Shot Rock ‘n’ Roll will feature one of the largest and exciting displays of rock photography ever presented. “When musicians speak honestly, they’ll tell you that their relationship with the camera has enormous power,” says Buckland. “They know they need it.” The show itself has a multimedia component that will feature videos of the photographers talking about their work, live bands and a soundtrack written by Blondie’s Chris Stein.

Tina Turner

The exhibition is in six sections: rare and revealing images taken behind the scenes; tender snapshots of young musicians at the beginnings of their careers; exhilarating photographs of live performances that display the energy, passion, style, and sex appeal of the band on stage; powerful images of the crowds and fans that are often evocative of historic paintings; portraits revealing the soul and creativity, rather than the surface and celebrity, of the musicians; and conceptual images and album covers highlighting the collaborative efforts between the image makers and the musicians.

Michael Jackson

The show also features plenty of sex. “The phrase ‘rocking and rolling’ originally meant sex,” Buckland laughs. “This really is a turn-on.”

The show, which runs from October 30, 2006 through January 31, 2010, comes complete with a like-named book, featuring more than 175 classic shots, from Johnny Cash flipping the bird to the camera at a San Quentin concert, to Tupac Shakur playing with the image of the male African-American outlaw.

http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/

Jimi Hendrix and Wilson Pickett, 1966

Madonna by Maripol

Marilyn Manson